Americans were moved from tehrans Notorious Eivin Prison to a hotel guarded by iranian officials earlier today. Cnns Christiane Amanpour was first to break the story. She also spoke with one of the Iranian American detainees in an unprecedented interview from the prison back in march. She joins us now. Christiane, Siamak Namazi took a huge risk talking to you, but it does seem his message has been heard. Reporter well, lets hope so because he was desperate. And youre absolutely right. He told me desperate times, you know, mean you have to take desperate measures. And it was an extraordinary thing for somebody to be able to take a phone call out of eivin. He had been in nearly eight years, so he had some privileges like the ability to use a phone. But never had this been allowed to the press, and he didnt get permission. He just did it. But it just goes to show how desperate they were and how they absolutely wanted to get their message in front and center of the Biden Administration to try to get this resolved. Because they were wrongfully detained. And siamak had been, you know, left behind three times. Once under the Obama AdministrationPrisoner Swap and twice under the trump administration. Anyway, this is what he told me back then. It was a heartfelt plea heard around the world. Honestly, the other hostages and i desperately need President Biden to finally hear us out, to hear our cry for help and bring us home. And i suppose desperate times call for desperate measures. So this is a desperate measure. Im clearly nervous. Siamak namazi was irans longestheld american prisoner. He was arrested in 2015 while on a Business Trip and then sentenced to ten years for, quote, collaborating with a hostile state. Namazi, a dual citizen, always denied the charge, and washington accused iran of wrongfully detaining him. This was the desperate appeal he made to us from Inside Evin Prison in our unprecedented conversation. I think the very facts that ive chosen to take this risk and appear on cnn from evin prison, it should just tell you how dire my situation has become by this point. I spent months caged. I spent months caged in a solitary cell that was the size of a closet, sleeping on the floor, being fed like a dog from under the door. And honestly, that was the least of my troubles. Reporter siamaks elderly father, bahre, whos now 86, was lured to iran in 2016 with the promise of seeing his son. Instead, he too was arrested, imprisoned for two years, and then barred from leaving the country. He was finally allowed out last october to seek medical treatment abroad. Hes never stopped publicly campaigning for his sons release. I will never truly be free until siamak is here beside me. I could not be more proud of his courage. But i dont want him to have to be brave anymore. I want him to be safe. I want him to be free, to live life he should have been living for the past seven years. I want him to be home. Among the other hostages released along with namazi, a businessman emad sharghi and morad tahbaz, who have both been held for more than five years. They say they never so much as jaywalked and they were held only as americans to be traded on the geopolitical market. Before their release their families tried to rally support. I know that they are desperate, that they are scared, and they feel like theyve been forg forgotten. They have been determined officially by the department of state, by our secretary of state, as having been taken, detained by the iranians, for one reason and that is because they are americans. My father is an amazing person. Is he is so calm, so kind, so generous, so noble. And i think just how my siblings and i have been able to carry ourselves through this surreal nightmare is just a testament to him and my mother and everything that theyve instilled in us and who they are. Former new mexico governor bill richardson, who advocates for some of these families, puts it bluntly. And this has happened in russia, venezuela, iran, north korea. Its a pattern. Its a new Hostage Diplomacy that we have to start confronting. Just do whats necessary to end this nightmare and bring us home. Thank you. Well get that message out, siamak. These few may finally have been released, but will they be the last american hostages taken by tehran . So emotional. And you can just see it from a human perspective. But of course this is wrapped up in geopolitics, as we said. There are in fact Five Americans, it turns out. Two of them have not been named. And so we dont know who actually they are. Their families have not made their names public. We cnn got a response, a statement from the iranian government in which they said that their release was a humanitarian gesture on their behalf, but they specifically said that this was a agreement done through a thirdparty government between the u. S. And iran that would pardon and reciprocally release five prisoners. So obviously iran is waiting for five prisoners to be released from the United States. And importantly, this is absolutely only a first step until all the is are dotted and ts are crossed and the deal is complete. These americans will not be able to leave the country. Cnns Christiane Amanpour with remarkable reporting. Stick around if you would. I want to bring in White House NationalSecurity Council spokesperson retired rear admiral john kirby who joins us now. Admiral, thanks for joining us. Iran is one of the only countries the u. S. Government designates as a State Sponsor of terrorism. The first question is how was this done . I know the u. S. Does not negotiate with terrorists, but this negotiation was done through a third party. Is it switzerland who did the negotiation . Right, through our swiss representatives. Thats right, jake. Yeah, thats exactly right. And it was a swiss representative, our protecting power, if you will, since we dont have diplomatic relations with ifrn, who checked in on these four once they got out of prison and verified to us that they were in fact out. So its five u. S. Detain ees who are now out of prison but on house arrest. And and is the Exchange Going to be for five iranian prisoners here in the United States as well as more than 6 billion in frozen iranian assets being unfrozen . I think im going to refrain from getting too much into the specifics of the negotiations, jake. Theyre ongoing. Today was a important first step but it was just a first step. They are out of prison but they are not out of iran. And so were going to be a little careful here about what we put in the public space about what the negotiations are going to look like. Once they get home and theyre safe and sound back with their families where they belong then i think well be a little bit more at liberty to talk with more specificity on what the negotiations look like. But those negotiations are active, jake. Theyre not done. Just to jog everyones memory out there in 2016 u. S. Officials confirmed that president obama secretly approved a 400 million Cash Transfer to iran. This was also previously frozen iranian assets. On the same day iran released four american prisoners and formally implemented the nuclear deal. We even saw a video from Iranian State media which appeared to show actual pallets of cash. This obviously became very controversial. Republicans jumped on it insisting this was basically negotiating with terrorists, a Ransom Payment. The white house denied that. Just this afternoon republican esidential candidate mike pence said, biden has authorized the largest Ransom Payment in American History to the mullahs in tehran. What would your response to that be . That hes wrong. Just plain and simple. Look, while i cant tell you everything that were doing and everything that this is, i can certainly tell you what its not. And theres not going to be a Ransom Payment. Theres not going to be sanctions relief. Theres no u. S. Taxpayer dollars that are going to be applied to getting these americans home. And this 6 billion, without getting into the details of the negotiations, i think theres a little confusion about what this account is all about. This is part of a system of accounts that were set up in the Previous Administration that allowed some countries to import iranian goods, nonsanctional goods, and that the iranians could pull on those accounts, those payments, through a special system only used for humanitarian purposes. And thats what were talking about here. Its a preexisting account that was set up in the Previous Administration which they allowed other countries to set up that has not been made accessible to the iranians. Theyd be able to have some access to it but only for humanitarian purposes. Five americans who are part of this deal that we know of being released from the evin prison, four of them, and put in house arrest in a hotel. The fifth one already was in that house arrest. Right. Removing them from the equation, we certainly hope that they all get out of iran and back to the United States, are there any other american citizens or American Green card holders still detained in iranian prisons unfairly other than those five . These are the five that the State Department have designated as wrongfully detained. One american also taken by iran in 2007 of course, robert levinson, is believed to be dead. Is there any new information that the u. S. Might have about mr. Levinson . Well, i wish we had more, jake, but we dont and i have nothing more that i can unfortunately say. Certainly to his family. But i just we just dont. What would you say to somebody out there, and this is my last question, sir, who says okay, so this money, lets say its 6 billion because i dont have another figure to go by and you didnt offer an alternating one. 6 billion in iranian assets that are unfrozen. Whether its i mean, you say its not american taxpayer dollars, and thats accurate, still it does seem like we are giving the iranians something and certainly i could understand why the common man or woman out there might say you know, thats a Ransom Payment. I mean, im glad these americans are getting home but thats a Ransom Payment. Well, a couple of things here. First of all, negotiations are about giving and taking. And there was no universe in which we were going to get these Five Americans home without some bartering, some compromising with the iranians. And that bargaining is ongoing right now. So again, i dont want to get too far ahead of what its going to actually look like, the terms the scope of the negotiation and the deal. But on this ransom, this is not a ransom. And its important to remember that the account from which money could be accessed by the iranians is an account set up in a Previous Administration that allowed other countries to import nonsanctionable goods. Its not something that the Biden Administration created but its a series of accounts that iran has pulled on before. They havent been able to pull on one account. And what were talking about is the possibility of making that one account that has been in existence for several years more accessible to the iranians. But it would be again under the same level of limits. They could only pull from that account for humanitarian purposes. And there is an Oversight Mechanism thats already built into that process. So its not ransom. And again, no u. S. Taxpayer dollars involved here. I think at the end of the day, jake, theres going to be criticism. Theres already been criticism. We understand that. I hope that at the end of the day everybody, no matter who you vote for, can understand how important it is to get these families reunited, to get these americans back home. And yes, sometimes that means making some tough decisions and some tough calls. You and i have talked about several of those in the past. The president s not afraid to make those tough decisions because he cares that much about the safety and security of americans overseas. Agreed. It is not an easy story. Not an easy terrain to negotiate, to get these americans home. Admiral kirby, good to see you as always. Lets bring in Cnn International anchor Christiane Amanpour. Christiane, you just heard mr. Kirby say its not a Ransom Payment, no sanctions relief, no u. S. Taxpayer dollars will be used. What is this, then, in your view . Well, i think john kirbys absolutely right. Its not ransom. I mean, look, if you want to talk about all these things, theyve been going on since time immemorial. Since the beginning of the islamic revolution. Successive american president s have had to do the necessary to get americans back, you know, from the beginning of the Reagan Administration all the way through to this one. And for with respect Vice President pence to cast aspersions, remember he was the Vice President for president trump, who entered two such deals to get two americans back. Before that president obama did too. You mentioned it. As part of the iran nuclear deal. And before that and before that the president s did it. Right now President Biden this year has entered a deal of reciprocity with the russians to get back Brittney Griner and trying to get back others. These are the facts of life. And to protect American Life sometimes these have to happen. Admerle kirby didnt say to you, and im not sure whether ive got this right, but from what i understand about the money it is not even american money. Forget taxpayers dollars. Its south korean money. Apparently, the money is the money that south korea owes iran for that amount of oil that iran delivered to it. But because of the global sanctions regime they were not allowed to return it. So in this case apparently thats the case. But you know, again, in terms of getting these prisoners back we dont know all the deals, all the you know, all the details. And it will take some time. Its very difficult obviously. The u. S. Still trying to negotiate for Yvonne Gershkovich and paul whelan who have been detained unfairly in russia. Do you see this as a way for the Iranian Regime to try to counter the rightly negative reputation it has for irans Morality Police cracking down, beating, imprisoning and executing women and supporters for women not covering their hair after nearly a year of mass protests following the death if not murder of mahsa amini . I think the two are separate, like its separate from the nuclear deal and all those others. But youre absolutely right that the protests, the crackdown, the harsh penalties, imprisonment, even extrajudicial executions in the wake of mahsa aminis death and the Protest Movement has caused the United States and other countries to sort of slow down negotiations. It just wasnt palatable. It wasnt politically palatable to be able to do that. And thats one of the road blocks that the Hostage Negotiations ran into. And i think that what youre going to see, though, some have suggested is potentially its a deescalation between the United States and iran, at least until the end of the election. All right. Christiane amanpour. Remarkable reporting. Thank you so much as always. Cnn is on the ground in hawaii where unprecedented wildfires have caused widespread destruction. Crews are fearing theyre going to find more victims in the rubble. Were going to take you there. Struggling with the highs and lows of bipolar 1 . Ask about vraylar. Because you are greater than your bipolar 1, and you can help take control of your symptoms with vraylar. Some medicines only treat the lows or highs. Vraylar treats depressive, acute manic, and mixed episodes of bipolar 1 in adults. Proven, fullspectrum relief for all bipolar 1 symptoms. And in vraylar clinical studies, most saw no substantial impact on weight. Elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. 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